LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 


•LINCOLN 
THE     LEADER 


AND 


LINCOLN'S   GENIUS 
FOR   EXPRESSION 


BY 


RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER 


BOSTON    AND    NEW    YORK 
HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 


ej 


COPYRIGHT,   1909,   BY  RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER 
ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  October  ZQOQ 


SECOND   IMPRESSION 


CONTENTS 

LINCOLN  THE  LEADER  J 

LINCOLN'S  GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION  61 


210110 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 


ON   THE  LIFE-MASK   OF  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 

This  bronze  doth  keep  the  very  form  and  mold 
Of  our  great  martyr's  face.   Yes,  this  is  he: 
That  brow  all  wisdom,  all  benignity ; 
That  human,  humorous  mouth ;  those  cheeks  that 
hold 

Like  some  harsh  landscape  all  the  summer's  gold; 
That  spirit  fit  for  sorrow,  as  the  sea 
For  storms  to  beat  on  ;  the  lone  agony  . 

Those  silent,  patient  lips  too  well  foretold.    1^ 

Yes,  this  is  he  who  ruled  a  world  of  men 
As  might  some  prophet  of  the  elder  day  — 
Brooding  above  the  tempest  and  the  fray 

With  deep-eyed  thought  and  more  than  mortal  ken. 
A  power  was  his  beyond  the  touch  of  art 
Or  armed  strength — his  pure  and  mighty  heart. 


V 


if  OFTHE 

I   UNIVERrm- 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 


IT  was  not  many  years  after  the  Civil 
War  that  I  first  came  to  New  York. 
There  I  met,  with  youth's  curiosity  and 
admiration  for  genius  and  distinction, 
among  other  literary  lights  of  the  day, 
Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  who  had 
struck  out  that  dynamic  lyric  on  Ossa- 
watomie  Brown,  prophetic  of  the  war, 
who  had  addressed  to  the  President  the 
demand  for  a  captain, — "Abraham  Lin 
coln,  give  us  a  man  ! "  —  a  demand  which 
it  took  Lincoln  so  long  and  through  so 
many  disappointments  to  satisfy,  and 
who  had  written  the  ringing  sonnet  on 

1  First  read  before  the  Minnesota  Commandery 
of  the  Loyal  Legion,  at  Minneapolis,  February  12, 
1907;  and  since  revised  and  somewhat  extended. 

[3  ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

the  assassination,  in  which  Lincoln  is 
described  as  "  the  whitest  soul  a  nation 
knew  " ;  Bayard  Taylor,  who  had  been 
of  special  service  to  Lincoln  at  the  im 
portant  court  of  St.  Petersburg ;  John 
Bigelow,  who  had  served  the  cause  of  the 
Union  in  Paris ;  Richard  Grant  White, 
who  had  interpreted  the  Union  cause  in 
his  "  New  Gospel  of  Peace,"  and  had 
gathered  the  war-songs  into  a  unique 
volume  ;  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  who 
had  written  an  eloquent  ode  on  the  death 
of  Lincoln ;  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  who 
had  written  a  life  of  the  President,  the 
first  of  any  moment  to  be  put  forth 
after  his  death  —  a  still  valuable  con 
tribution  ;  Noah  Brooks,  who  had  been 
close  to  Lincoln  in  Washington;  Bret 
Harte,  author,  among  other  famous 
pieces,  of  certain  memorable  lyrics  of 
the  war ;  George  William  Curtis,  who 
[4] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

had  taken  part  in  both  the  conventions 
that  nominated  Lincoln,  and  officially 
notified  him  of  his  second  nomination ; 
and,  a  seldom  and  picturesque  revisitor 
of  his  beloved  Manhattan,  Walt  Whit 
man,  who  had  written  "Captain,  My 
Captain,"  and  the  passionate  chant  on 
the  death  of  the  President, "  When  Lilacs 
Last  in  the  Dooryard  Bloomed."  A 
familiar  and  majestic  figure  of  the  time 
was  the  poet  Bryant,  who  had  presided 
on  the  occasion  of  Lincoln's  Cooper 
Union  Speech,  when  each  had  been 
greatly  impressed  by  the  other,  Lincoln 
saying,  "  It  was  worth  the  journey  to 
the  East  merely  to  meet  such  a  man," 
and  Bryant  becoming,  soon  after,  one  of 
Lincoln's  chief  supporters  for  the  Presi 
dential  nomination. 

A  certain  young  journalist  and  author 
in   the  literary  group  greatly  attracted 
C  5] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

me.  I  remember  writing  to  him  in  those 
days  a  boyish,  enthusiastic  letter  enroll 
ing  him  in  the  company  of  "  good 
fellows  "  —  the  good-hearted,  the  art- 
loving,  the  genial.  There  was  a  special 
fascination  about  him.  He  had  a  quiet, 
intense  sense  of  humor ;  a  wit  that  was 
genial,  though  it  could  be  stinging;  and 
a  piquant  poise  and  reticence.  He  was 
as  self-confident  as  he  was  courteous 
and  modest. 

To  him  I  said  one  day,  "  Colonel,  as 
you  continue  your  study  of  Lincoln,  and 
your  writing  about  him,  does  he  seem 
to  you  greater  or  less  ? " 

To  this, — and  I  remember  the  seri 
ousness  of  his  manner,  —  John  Hay  an 
swered,  "As  I  go  on  with  the  work,  to 
me  Lincoln  grows  greater  and  greater." 

Since  then,  as  the  historical  students 
and  the  people  of  his  country  and  of  the 
[6] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

world  have  studied  and  better  known  his 
life,  characteristics,  and  accomplishments, 
Abraham  Lincoln  has  grown  greater  and 
greater  in  the  estimation  of  mankind. 
Very  largely,  indeed,  has  the  writing  of 
John  Hay  himself,  and  of  the  elder  de 
voted  co-biographer,  John  G.  Nicolay, 
helped  in  this  better  understanding. 
Lincoln's  praises  are  multiplied  in  all 
lands  by  statesmen,  historians,  orators, 
poets.  Added  to  the  common  admiring 
regard  in  which  he  is  held,  one  con 
stantly  comes  upon  a  peculiar  interest 
in  him,  an  absorbing  affection  for  him, 
on  the  part  of  all  sorts  of  people,  some 
of  whom  were  his  contemporaries,  and 
some  who  were  children  during  his  life, 
or  born  since  his  living  day.  A  man  of 
light  and  leading  in  our  Southern  States 
told  me  lately  that  to  him  Lincoln  was 
one  of  the  four  most  interesting  per- 
[7] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

sonalities  in  all  history,  one  of  the 
others  being  no  less  than  "  the  man  of 
Galilee." 

As  the  study  of  Lincoln  has  continued, 
it  has  become  more  and  more  evident 
that  he  was  no  mere  accident  of  poli 
tics.  In  his  nomination  and  election 
there  was  no  accident  or  miracle.  But 
there  was,  indeed,  a  miracle,  and  one 
which  greatens  the  more  it  is  contem 
plated  —  the  ancient  miracle  of  individ 
ual  genius.  Why  did  the  boy  who  fished 
little  Abe  out  of  Knob  Creek  remain  the 
simple,  worthy,  but,  save  for  this  one 
act,  unknown  person  that  he  was,  while 
the  boy  that  was  rescued  became  a  man 
fit  for  the  companionship  of  Solomon 
and  of  Shakespeare :  not  a  President 
merely,  not  a  liberator  merely,  not  a 
martyr  merely,  —  but  a  man  of  such 
surpassing  character  and  sagacity  as  to 
[8  ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

dominate,  by  native  right,  in  one  of  the 
most  terrific  conflicts  recorded  in  human 
annals. 

ii 

It  is  natural  that  a  writer  should  be 
specially  attracted  to  Lincoln  by  a  study 
of  his  recorded  utterances ;  in  other 
words,  by  an  interest  in  his  literary  style. 
Too  young  to  appreciate  what  may  be 
called  the  artistic  quality  of  his  speeches 
and  writings  at  the  time  of  their  delivery, 
it  was  after  the  war  that  I  awoke  to  a 
full  appreciation  of  Lincoln's  power  of 
expression  —  a  power  which  was  one  of 
the  main  elements  of  his  strength  as  a 
leader. 

It  is  not  strange  that  an  unusual  fac 
ulty  of  expression  should  be  found  to 
belong  to  those  who  have  risen  to  leader 
ship  among  men.  This  expressiveness 
may  be  of  various  kinds.  Lincoln  and 
[9] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

Gladstone  having  been  contemporaries, 
born  in  the  same  year,  and  each  rising 
to  the  highest  leadership  in  the  two  great 
English-speaking  nations,  it  is  natural 
that  they  should  be  compared  as  to  their 
use  of  language  spoken  and  written. 
Gladstone's  elaborate  and  persuasive  elo 
quence,  his  manifold  learning  and  richly 
stored  memory,  the  copiousness  of  his 
diction,  and  the  dignity,  as  well  as  the 
fire  and  energy  of  his  forensic  appeals  — 
these  were  among  the  wonders  of  a  good 
part  of  the  last  century.  But,  on  separate 
occasions,  I  asked  of  two  of  Gladstone's 
most  eminent  parliamentary  supporters 
and  admirers,  without  contradiction,  and, 
indeed,  with  full  agreement  on  the  part 
of  both,  whether  it  was  not  one  of  the 
miracles  of  genius  that,  notwithstanding 
Gladstone  had  enjoyed  all  that  culture 
could  accomplish,  —  by  means  of  uni- 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

versity  training,  and  familiarity  with  the 
art  and  literature  of  the  ancient  and 
modern  world,  and  long  training  and 
leadership  in  public  life,  —  he  had  not 
left  a  single  masterpiece  of  English, 
hardly  one  great  phrase  that  clings  to 
the  memory  of  men ;  while  Lincoln,  with 
out  any  educational  advantages  whatever, 
growing  up  in  the  backwoods,  with 
scarcely  a  dozen  books  of  rank  and  value 
at  his  command,  and  ignorant  of  the  lit 
erature  and  art  of  modern  Europe,  as  of 
ancient  times,  had  acquired  a  style  of 
higher  distinction  than  that  of  Glad 
stone,  and  had  bequeathed  more  than  one 
masterpiece  to  the  literature  of  the  Eng 
lish  tongue. 

Lincoln's  style  in  speech  and  writing 
is  the  same  sort  of  miracle  that  gave  us 
the  consummate  art  of  Shakespeare,  the 
uncolleged  actor;  of  Burns,  the  plow- 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

man  ;  and  of  Keats,  the  apothecary's  ap 
prentice,  son  of  a  livery-stableman.  It  is 
not  easy  to  analyze  a  miracle,  but  in  dis 
cussing  the  leadership  of  Lincoln  it  is 
interesting  to  find  certain  qualities  in  his 
literary  style  that  are  traits  of  his  char 
acter,  and  thus  elements  of  his  leader 
ship. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  country  has 
been  ransacked  for  every  record  of  his 
public  speech,  and  every  scrap  of  paper 
to  which  he  put  pen,  there  has  been 
found  from  him  absolutely  nothing  dis 
creditable,  and  little  that  can  be  criticized 
in  the  way  of  expression.  Without  the 
aid  of  any  teacher,  he  early  learned  to 
be  moderate  and  reasonable  in  state 
ment,  so  that  on  the  part  even  of  the 
obscure  young  politician  there  is  a  com 
plete  absence  of  that  kind  of  public 
speech  which  is  described  in  a  passage 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

he  loved  to  quote,  where  it  is  said  of  the 
orator  that  "  he  mounted  the  rostrum, 
threw  back  his  head,  shined  his  eyes, 
and  left  the  consequences  to  God." 

in 

Lincoln's  relish  for  a  phrase  like  this 
recalls  his  extraordinary  sense  of  humor. 
Probably  no  great  historical  figure  in 
the  realm  of  action  ever  had  Lincoln's 
intense  humorousness,  combined  with  so 
keen  and  racy  a  wit.  Emerson  notes  in 
his  journal  "a  sort  of  boyish  cheerfulness, 
or  that  kind  of  sincerity  and  jolly  good 
meaning  that  our  class  meetings  on  Com 
mencement  Days  show,  in  telling  our 
old  stories  over.  When  he  has  made  his 
remark,  he  looks  up  at  you  with  great 
satisfaction,  and  shows  all  his  white  teeth, 
and  laughs."  Lincoln's  laugh  could  be 
something  amazing.  His  face,  in  repose 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

well-balanced  and  commanding,  with  his 
heartiest  laughter  is  said  to  have  be 
come  a  surprising  thing.  Many  anec 
dotes  relate  the  boisterousness  of  his 
appreciation  of  a  humorous  situation  or 
story.  Hay  tells  of  his  cheery  laugh, 
which  filled  the  Blue  Room  with  infec 
tious  good  nature.  "  Homeric  laughter  " 
Hay  says  it  sometimes  was;  adding  this 
genial  touch,  that  it  was  "dull  pleasure" 
to  Lincoln  "  to  laugh  alone."  In  young 
Hay  he  had  always  at  hand,  to  share  his 
enjoyment  of  an  amusing  story  from 
life,  or  from  one  of  the  humorous  books 
of  the  day,  a  keenly  sympathetic  audi 
ence.  I  like  to  think  of  the  tired  Presi 
dent  stealing  into  the  young  secretary's 
room  late  at  night,  sitting  on  the  edge 
of  the  bed,  and  reading  aloud  some  good 
joke  of  war-time. 

Some  visitors  at  the  White   House 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

were  filled  with  wonder  at  the  quick 
transition  from  unbridled  mirth  to  pa 
thetic  seriousness.  What  wonder  that 
"  the  boisterous  laughter  became  less 
frequent  year  by  year,  the  eye  grew 
veiled  by  constant  meditation  on  mo 
mentous  subjects  ;  the  air  of  reserve  and 
detachment  from  his  surroundings  in- 
creased,"\and,  as  Hay  says,  and  his  pic 
tures  and  the  two  contrasting  life-masks 
showi  he  rapidly  grew  old.) 

Lincoln's  sense  of  humor,  which  fla 
vored  now  and  then  his  speeches  and 
writings,  and  constantly  his  conversation, 
went  along  with  a  homely  wit  which  fre 
quently  brought  to  his  argument  quaint 
and  convincing  illustration.  His  sense 
of  humor  was,  indeed,  a  real  assistance 
in  his  leadership,  having  many  uses :  it 
relieved  the  strain  of  his  strenuous  labors ; 
it  helped  to  attach  the  masses  to  his  per- 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

sonality ;  and  it  assisted  him  out  of  many 
difficulties.  We  did  not  fully  know  till 
lately  that  he  himself  so  keenly  appre 
ciated  the  part  that  story-telling  played 
in  his  career.  Colonel  Burt  reports  a 
strange  interview  with  Lincoln  at  the 
Soldiers'  Home  at  a  time  of  keen  anxiety 
and  when  a  person  present  had  rudely 
demanded  one  of  his  "good  stories." 
"  I  believe,"  said  Lincoln,  turning  away 
from  the  challenger, "  I  have  the  popular 
reputation  of  being  a  story-teller,  but  I 
do  not  deserve  the  name  in  its  general 
sense ;  for  it  is  not  the  story  itself,  but 
its  purpose,  or  effect,  that  interests  me. 
yl  often  avoid  a  long  and  useless  discus 
sion  by  others,  or  a  laborious  explanation 
on  my  own  part,  by  a  short  story  that 
illustrates  my  point  of  view.  So,  too,  the 
sharpness  of  a  refusal  or  the  edge  of  a 
rebuke  may  be  blunted  by  an  appropri- 
[  '6] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

ate  story,  so  as  to  save  wounded  feeling 
and  yet  serve  the  purpose.  No,  I  am 
not  simply  a  story-teller,  but  story-tell 
ing  as  an  emollient  saves  me  much  fric 
tion  and 


IV 

The  most  striking  characteristic  of 
Lincoln's  style  may  be  found  in  the 
record  from  the  beginning.  Candor  was 
a  trait  of  the  man,  and  not  less  of  his 
verbal  manner.  His  natural  honesty  of 
character,  his  desire  to  make  his  mean 
ing  clear,  —  literally  to  demonstrate  what 
he  believed  to  be  the  truth,  with  mathe 
matical  precision,  —  this  gave  his  ex 
pression  both  attractiveness  and  force. 
The  simplicity  of  his  nature,  his  lack  of 
self-consciousness  and  vanity,  tended  to 
simplicity  and  directness  of  diction.  An 
eminent  lawyer  has  said,  —  is  it  with  ex- 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

aggeration  ?  —  that  without  the  massive 
reasoning  of  Webster,  or  the  resplendent 
rhetoric  of  Burke,  Lincoln  exceeded 
them  both  in  his  faculty  of  statement. 
His  style  was  affected,  too3  by  the  per 
sonal  traits  of  consideration  for  those  of 
a  contrary  mind,  by  his  toleration,  and 
his  large  human  sympathy. 

But  Lincoln's  style  might  have  had 
all  these  qualities,  and  yet  not  have  car 
ried  as  it  did.  Beyond  these  traits  comes 
the  miracle  —  the  cadence  of  his  prose, 
and  its  traits  of  pathos  and  of  imagina 
tion.  Lincoln's  prose,  at  its  height,  and 
when  his  spirit  was  stirred  by  aspiration 
and  resolve,  affects  the  soul  like  noble 
music.  Indeed,  there  may  be  found  in 
all  his  great  utterances  a  strain  which  is 
like  the  leading  motive — the  Leitmotif 
—  in  musical  drama  ;  a  strain  of  mingled 
pathos,  heroism,  and  resolution.  That  is 
[  18  ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

the  strain  in  the  two  inaugurals,  in  the 
"  Gettysburg  Address,"  and  in  his  letter 
of  consolation  to  a  bereaved  mother, 
which  moves  the  hearts  of  generation 
after  generation.1 

Lincoln's  power  of  expression  was  evi 
dently  one  of  the  most  effective  elements 
of  his  leadership.  The  sympathy  and 
toleration  which  made  his  writings  and 
speeches  so  persuasive  assisted  his  leader 
ship,  not  only  in  convincing  his  listeners, 
and  in  endearing  him,  the  leader,  to  in 
dividuals  and  the  masses,  but  helped  him 
as  a  statesman  to  take  large  and  humane 
views,  and  to  adopt  measures  in  keeping 
with  such  views.  To  that  sympathy  and 
that  toleration  a  reunited  country  is  under 
constant  obligation ;  for  Lincoln  not  only 
brought  the  war  to  a  successful  issue, — 

1  See  "Lincoln's  Genius  for  Expression,"  in 
this  volume. 

[  -9] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

successful  in  the  true  interests  of  both 
antagonists,  —  but  to  him  we  owe  the 
continuing  possibility  of  good  feeling 
between  the  sections.  To  think  that  in 
the  preparatory  political  struggle  and  dur 
ing  the  four  years  of  the  hideous  con 
flict,  Abraham  Lincoln,  though  his  spirit 
was  strained  almost  beyond  human  en 
durance  by  the  harassments  of  his  posi 
tion;  though  misunderstood  and  foully 
calumniated  by  public  antagonists,  and 
thwarted  and  plotted  against  by  some  of 
his  own  apparent  supporters,  uttered  not 
one  word  of  violence  or  rancor — not  a 
phrase  which,  after  the  cessation  of  hos 
tilities,  might  return  to  embitter  the  de 
feated  combatants,  or  be  resented  by  their 
descendants ! 

This  extraordinary  forbearance  of  the 
President's  has  often  been  spoken  of  as  an 
amiable  trait  of  the  man  ;  but  do  we  fully 
[  20] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

realize  the  value  to  the  nation  of  this  trait, 
and  the  worth  of  its  example  in  public 
leadership  ?  After  so  tremendous  a  con 
flict,  the  world  abroad  wonders  at  the 
quickness  of  the  return  to  sympathetic  re 
lations, —  to  closer  relations  than  ever, — 
between  the  sections  so  lately  at  war.  But 
we  of  the  country  know  that  the  obstacles 
to  true  union  after  the  war  were  not  so 
much  the  events  of  the  war, —  though 
some  of  these  naturally  enough  left  a 
trail  of  bitter  resentment,  —  as  events 
succeeding  the  conflict  of  years,  in  that 
period  of  experimental  reconstruction 
when  things  were  done  in  the  name  of 
the  dominant  powers  which  the  South 
has  found  it  hard  to  forget,  and  the  North 
ardently  wishes  could  be  blotted  from  re 
membrance.  Lincoln's  attitude  toward 
the  South,  when  fully  comprehended, 
helped  to  obliterate  the  acid  stains  of  the 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER 

reconstruction  period.  In  other  words, 
we  are  to-day  a  truly  united  country,  not 
only  because  Lincoln  conducted  the  war 
so  as  to  win  military  success,  but  because 
of  his  wise  and  tolerant  and  sympathetic 
leadership  during  that  war. 

A  striking  illustration  of  his  sympathy 
for  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States 
was  his  attempt,  earnest  and  ineffectual, 
in  the  last  days  of  hostilities,  two  months 
before  his  death,  to  convert  his  own  cabi 
net  to  his  generous  and  long-cherished 
scheme  of  compensated  emancipation. 
That  he  failed  pathetically  to  carry 
through  this  plan,  upon  which  his  heart 
was  set,  illustrates,  also,  the  fact  that 
uninterrupted  success  is  not  necessary  to 
the  fame  of  the  great  figures  of  history. 
Lincoln's  failure  to  win  support  for  this 
humane  policy  deeply  grieved  him,  but 
the  misadventure  is  not  held  against  him 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

in  the  estimate  of  his  greatness.  On  the 
contrary,  the  fact  that  he  made  the  at 
tempt  counts  in  his  favor,  and  to-day 
especially  endears  him  to  multitudes  of 
his  countrymen,  and  is  one  of  the  very 
bonds  that  hold  the  country  together. 

But  Lincoln's  sympathy  and  tolerance, 
his  forgiveness,  his  distaste  for  personal 
contention,  his  lack  of  resentment,  his 
great  heart,  were  shown  not  only  in  his 
attitude  toward  those  whom  —  for  their 
own  good,  as  he  believed  —  he  unrelent 
ingly  opposed  with  all  the  forces  at  his 
command ;  but  also  toward  his  political 
opponents  in  the  North,  and  toward  those 
among  his  nominal  supporters  whose  zeal 
led  them  into  positions  of  open  or  con 
cealed  antagonism.  The  opposition  to 
him  in  his  own  party  was  much  more 
intense  than  is  generally  known  to  the 
present  generation. 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 


As  to  his  masterly  management  of  the 
personalities  whose  followers  he  placated 
and  whose  peculiarities  and  adverse  abili 
ties  he  skilfully  utilized  for  the  common 
cause,  this  part  of  his  leadership  is  illus 
trated  by  a  hundred  stories  either  true 
in  fact  or  typically  true.  Here  came  into 
play  his  sense  of  humor,  his  insight  into 
motive  and  character,  in  a  word,  his  tact, 
along  with  that  tolerance  and  that  sym 
pathy  of  which  I  have  spoken  as  affect 
ing  his  habit  of  oral  and  written  expres 
sion.  That  he  could  manage  to  hold  so 
long  together  four  such  individualities 
as  his  own,  Seward's,  Stanton's,  and 
Chase's,  proves  a  genius  of  leadership 
truly  exceptional.  It  is  now  known,  as  it 
was  not  till  Nicolay  and  Hay  revealed 
the  fact,  how  Seward  learned  to  respect 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

*** 

and  loyally  acquiesce  in  the  leadership 
of  one  whom  he  at  first  not  unnaturally 
expected  to  lead.  Lincoln's  leadership 
of  the  irascible  and  useful  Stanton  was 
a  simpler  matter;  here  the  President's 
inexhaustible  patience  and  his  abounding 
sense  of  humor  were  both  required  to 
save  the  situation,  though,  looking  back 
on  the  relations  of  these  strong  and  utterly 
divergent  personalities,  one  feels  that  the 
sense  of  humor  was  perhaps  the  saving 
grace.  As  for  Chase,  and  his  convinced 
and  enthusiastic  following,  it  was  inev 
itable  that  some  such  rallying-ground 
should  exist,  in  a  time  of  stress,  for  those 
who,  as  in  the  case  of  Chase  himself,  were 
temperamentally  unsympathetic  with  the 
personality  and  methods  of  Lincoln.  But 
Lincoln's  leadership  did  not  fail  him 
here,  as  the  story  of  the  second  nomina 
tion  and  election  abundantly  testifies. 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

In  Lincoln's  history  we  see  the  growth 
of  self-confidence  in  a  man  who  knows 
his  ignorances  and  limitations,  but  who, 
from  time  to  time  measuring  himself  with 
other  men  in  the  struggle  of  life,  gradu 
ally  learns  his  own  abilities  and  realizes 
his  own  strength.  With  such  an  experi 
ence  the  time  comes  when  one  who  has 
missed  the  learning  of  the  schools,  or  who 
is  new  in  some  special  field  into  which 
he  has  been  thrust,  confides  in  his  own 
vision,  makes,  if  slowly,  still  with  assur 
ance,  his  own  decisions,  and  is  willing  to 
shoulder  responsibilities  no  matter  how 
weighty.  A  letter  remarkable  for  its  an 
ticipation  of  the  favorable  opinion  of  the 
people  as  well  as  of  the  verdict  of  history, 
was  written  from  the  White  House  by 
John  Hay  to  John  G.  Nicolay,  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  war  —  with  two  years 
of  fighting  behind,  and  two  years  to  come. 
[  ^6] 


Uf4IVERSfTY  j 

OF 


THE  LEADER 

It  contains  a  vivid  picture  of  Lincoln, 
calm  and  confident  at  the  helm.  Not 
here  the  sad-eyed,  perplexed  President, 
who  would  "never  be  glad  any  more," 
—  not  the  future,  aureoled  martyr, — 
but  the  masterful  executive  :  — 

The  Tycoon  is  in  fine  whack.  I  have  rarely 
seen  him  more  serene  and  busy.  He  is  manag 
ing  this  war,  the  draft,  foreign  relations,  and 
planning  a  reconstruction  of  the  Union,  all  at 
once.  I  never  knew  with  what  tyrannous  au 
thority  he  rules  the  Cabinet,  till  now.  The 
most  important  things  he  decides  and  there  is 
no  cavil.  I  am  growing  more  and  more  firmly 
convinced  that  the  good  of  the  country  abso 
lutely  demands  that  he  should  be  kept  where 
he  is  till  this  thing  is  over.  There  is  no  man 
in  the  country  so  wise,  so  gentle  and  so  firm. 

VI 

Let  it  not  be  omitted  in  the  enumera 
tion  of  the  elements  of  Lincoln's  leader- 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

ship,  that  he  did  not  disdain  to  learn  from 
experience.  In  his  First  Inaugural,  while 
stating  the  policy  of  the  Administration 
with  regard  to  acts  of  violence  against  the 
authority  of  the  United  States,  he  defi 
nitely  announced  that  the  course  indicated 
would  be  followed  "unless  current  events 
and  experience  "  should  "show  a  modifi 
cation  or  change  to  be  proper,"  and  that  in 
every  case  and  exigency  his  best  discretion 
would  be  exercised  "according  to  circum 
stances  actually  existing."  Lincoln,  like 
other  great  leaders  and  administrators, 
would  rather  be  right  than  consistent. 
His  was  a  consistency  of  principle  rather 
than  of  program.  His  aim  was  justice, 
and  if  he  could  not  reach  it  by  one  path, 
he  would  push  on  by  another. 

Special  features  of  his  leadership  were 
the  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  long- 
practiced  lawyer,  which  helped  him  im- 

[28    ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

measurably  in  his  executive  decisions,  as 
Frederick  Trevor  Hill  has  clearly  pointed 
out ;  and  his  quickly  and  almost  instinc 
tively  acquired  skill  in  military  strategy. 
His  letters  to  generals  in  the  field  are  those 
of  a  master  of  strategy  who  should  use 
the  symbolism  of  ^Isop  and  the  irony  of 
Socrates.  Says  the  foremost  living  mili 
tary  critic  of  America,  General  Francis 
V.  Greene :  — 

Great  statesman,  astute  politician,  clear 
thinker,  classic  writer,  master  of  men,  kindly, 
lovable  man.  These  are  his  titles.  To  them 
must  be  added  —  military  leader.  Had  he  failed 
in  that  quality,  the  others  would  have  been 
forgotten.  Had  peace  been  made  on  any  terms 
but  those  of  surrender  of  the  insurgent  forces 
and  restoration  of  the  Union,  his  career  would 
have  been  a  colossal  failure  and  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  a  subject  of  ridicule. 
The  prime  essential  was  military  success. 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

Lincoln  gained  it.  Judged  in  the  retrospect 
of  nearly  half  a  century,  with  his  every  written 
word  now  in  print  and  with  all  the  facts  of  the 
period  brought  out  and  placed  in  proper  per 
spective  by  the  endless  studies,  discussions,  and 
arguments  of  the  intervening  years,  it  becomes 
clear  that  first  and  last  and  at  all  times  during 
his  Presidency,  in  military  affairs  his  was  not 
only  the  guiding  but  the  controlling  hand.1 

An  intensely  important  feature  of  Lin 
coln's  leadership  would  be  omitted  if 
nothing  were  said  of  the  effect  upon  his 
thought  and  conduct  of  his  belief  in  and 
conscious  communion  with  an  almighty, 
mysterious,  and  beneficent  Power,  con 
cerning  itself  not  less  with  human  affairs 
than  with  the  march  of  seasons  and  the 
sweep  of  constellations.  The  deity  was 
to  him  an  ever-present,  ever-regnant  in 
fluence.  There  was  nothing  of  theology 
1  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1900. 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

or  dogmatism  in  his  religious  opinions ; 
but  he  lived  in  the  spirit.  The  strange 
silence  of  the  Almighty  Sovereign  per 
plexed  him ;  and  he  sought  with  passionate 
eagerness  to  read  the  decrees  of  Provi 
dence  in  the  unfoldings  of  events,  some 
times  taking  definite  action  in  accordance 
with  his  interpretation  of  divine  indica 
tions.  And  always  the  belief  in  God  was 
to  him  a  challenge  to  singleness  of  pur 
pose  :  to  the  All  Pure  he  lifted  clean 
hands  and  a  pure  heart. 

Lincoln  the  Leader  possessed  sterner 
and  higher  traits  than  those  to  which  I 
first  called  attention.  He  had  the  lofty 
qualities  of  spiritual  insight,  of  moral  con 
viction,  of  solemn  resolution,  of  undying 
courage,  of  complete  devotion,  and  of 
faith  and  hope  unfailing.  He  saw  deeply, 
he  felt  intensely,  he  spoke  at  times  with 
the  voice  of  a  poet-prophet. 

[3.  i 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

Fate — or  is  it  some  world  spirit  of 
comedy  ?  —  plays  strange  pranks  with  hu 
man  affairs  now  and  then,  and  nothing 
more  singular  ever  happened  in  history,  or 
was  invented  in  romance,  than  the  giving 
of  imperial  powers,  the  destiny  of  a  race, 
the  leadership  of  a  nation,  the  keys  of 
life  and  death,  to  a  sad-eyed,  laughter- 
loving,  story-telling,  shrewd,  unlettered, 
big-hearted  frontiersman  —  the  one  great 
humorist  among  all  the  rulers  of  earth. 

Leader  always  he  was,  from  the  day 
when  he,  a  youth,  commanded  a  grotesque 
company  of  motleys  in  an  Indian  frontier 
campaign,  to  the  time  when  at  Washing 
ton  he  led  public  opinion  in  a  field  as  wide 
as  the  world  ;  controlled  the  movements 
of  fleets  and  armies ;  and  held  in  his  strong 
hands  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men. 

That    inordinately   tall   countryman, 

t  MI 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

with  a  shawl  thrown  over  his  gaunt  fig 
ure,  crossing  alone  the  little  park  between 
the  White  House  and  the  War  Depart 
ment,  if  appealed  to  by  some  distressed 
private  soldier  or  citizen  could  order 
justice  done  by  a  written  sentence  as 
surely  as  could  any  Asiatic  autocrat  by 
issued  edict.  While  he  often  yielded 
to  the  dictates  of  his  pitying  heart  in 
individual  cases,  and  showed  constantly 
almost  abnormal  patience,  those  who 
mistook  his  charity  for  weakness  were 
liable  to  sudden  enlightenment.  Col 
onel  Hay  once  saw  the  long-suffering 
Lincoln  take  an  office-seeker  by  the  coat- 
collar,  carry  him  bodily  to  the  door,  and 
throw  him  in  a  helpless  heap  outside. 
His,  indeed,  was  a  "gentle  but  firm  and 
certain  hand."  * 

And  here  is  the  wonder ;  this  merciful 

1  See  Lincoln's  military  program,  July  23,  1861. 
[  33] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

man,  daily  saving  the  lives  of  deserters 
so  as  not  to  increase  a  melancholy  list  of 
widows  and  orphans  ;  this  tender-souled, 
agonizing,  consecrated  leader,  looking 
out  upon  confronting  armies  and  a  suffer 
ing  people,  was  as  stern  as  fate  in  de 
manding  that  battle  should  be  made,  and 
war,  with  all  its  horrors,  resolutely  con 
tinued,  till  right  should  be  accomplished 
and  eternal  justice  done.  Here  is  the 
true  leader,  as  gentle  and  affectionate  as 
any  woman  and  as  averse  to  violence, 
yet  able  to  meet  with  unflinching  spirit 
the  inevitable  duty  of  the  sword-bearer ! 

VII 

The  great  test  of  Lincoln's  leadership 
came  in  his  dealing  with  the  fundamental 
question  of  slavery  as  related  to  the  com 
pact  of  the  States,  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Union,  the  very  existence  of  the  nation. 
[34] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

The  important  part  of  his  political  ca 
reer  before  the  war  had  to  do  with  this 
complex  question.  This  double  problem 
made  the  war  itself,  and  was  dominant 
throughout  its  course.  As  he  called  it,  the 
"perplexing  compound, —  Union  and 
slavery,"  had  become  indeed  a  "question 
not  of  two  sides  merely,  but  of  at  least 
four  sides,"  even  among  those  who  were 
for  the  Union,  saying  nothing  of  those 
who  were  against  it. 

"  There  were,"  he  said,  cc  those  who 
were  for  the  Union  with,  but  not  with 
out  slavery,  —  those  for  it  without,  but 
not  with ;  those  for  it  with  or  without, 
but  who  preferred  it  with ;  and  those  for 
it  with  or  without,  but  who  preferred  it 
without."  Here  was  the  maze  through 
which  he  must  needs  find  his  way  ;  these 
were  the  conditions  from  which  he  was  to 
work  out  salvation  for  the  nation,  with 
[  35] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

the  profound  conviction  that  whether 
slavery  was  or  was  not  immediately  ex 
tinguished,  its  death-warrant  was  already 
signed.  Lincoln's  view  of  slavery  was, 
from  the  first,  not  unlike  Washington's 
and  that  of  other  founders  of  the  Re 
public.  His  attitude  was  unyielding  as 
to  principle.  He  looked  upon  the  insti 
tution  as  intrinsically  evil :  inimical  to 
the  interests  of  free  labor ;  anomalous, 
and  impossible  of  perpetuity,  in  a  politi 
cally  free  community  ;  something  to  be 
thwarted,  diminished,  and  ultimately 
made  to  cease,  by  just,  constitutional, 
and  reasonable  means.  He  satisfied  the 
extremists  on  neither  side  of  the  great 
debate ;  for  while  he  would  never 
compromise  as  to  principle,  he  was  too 
profoundly  the  statesman  to  refuse  to 
compromise  as  to  details  of  time  and 
method. 

[36] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

Lincoln  the  Leader,  in  dealing  with 
the  chief  perplexity  of  the  situation, — 
this  complex  question  of  slavery  and  the 
Union,  —  was  helped  by  his  own  in 
tensely  human  make-up.  The  traits  com 
mon  to  all  mankind  were  in  him  strongly 
developed.  He  was  in  close  touch  with 
his  kind ;  he  sympathized  with  men  on 
the  plane  of  humanity,  and  regarded  them 
in  the  spirit  of  philosophy.  He  was  called 
a  great  joker;  but  Lincoln's  "seeing" 
of  "  the  joke  "  meant  more  than  with 
ordinary  minds ;  it  meant,  frequently 
enough,  that  he  saw  through  pretension 
and  falsity  ;  while  the  jokes  that  he  told 
often  had  the  wisdom  of  the  ancient 
parables. 

Lincoln's  democracy  was  a  matter  as 
much  of  instinct  as  of  reason.  He  compre 
hended  human  motives,  human  preju 
dices,  littleness,  and  nobilities.  It  was  he 
[37] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

who  once  described  honest  statesmanship 
as  the  employment  of  individual  mean 
nesses  for  the  public  good.  Acquainted 
with  humanity,  he  knew  how  to  bear 
with  its  infirmities,  and  he  moved  toward 
his  inflexible  purpose,  over  what  to  others 
would  have  been  heart-breaking  obsta 
cles,  with  a  long-suffering  patience  that 
had  in  it  something  of  the  divine. 

As  memoir  after  memoir  of  the  war 
time  has  come  to  light,  his  countrymen 
year  by  year  have  been  better  able  to 
obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  workings  of 
Lincoln's  mind,  and  the  marvelous  skill 
and  wisdom  of  his  leadership  at  the  time 
of  the  opening  debates;  pending  the 
Presidential  campaign;  and  during  the 
Presidency  itself.  That  which  his  chief 
biographers  long  ago  declared  of  him,  we 
now  more  certainly  know  to  be  the  truth ; 
namely,  that,  "with  the  fire  of  a  reformer 
[38] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

and  a  martyr  in  his  heart,  he  yet  pro 
ceeded  by  the  ways  of  cautious  and  prac 
tical  statecraft." 

Descended  upon  him  from  the  North 
delegations  of  abolitionists  to  tell  him 
that  unless  he  at  once  freed  the  slaves 
his  administration  would  be  shorn  of 
moral  support,  and  the  war  would  end 
in  failure  and  disgrace.  Hastened  to  the 
White  House  from  the  Border  States 
their  governors  and  congressional  repre 
sentatives  to  warn  him  that,  if  he  touched 
slavery,  they  could  not  keep  their  con 
stituencies  on  the  side  of  the  Union;  and 
the  Border  States,  he  knew,  held  the 
balance  of  power.  Hurried  back  from 
Spain  Carl  Schurz,  —  that  gallant  figure, 
a  contribution  of  the  best  of  the  Old 
World  to  the  service  of  the  New  in  its 
hour  of  need,  —  hurried  Carl  Schurz 
from  his  post  at  the  Spanish  court  to  in- 
[39] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

form  the  President  that,  according  to  his 
belief,  there  would  be  great  danger  of  the 
recognition  of  the  Confederacy  unless 
there  were  prompt  military  success,  or 
some  proof  that  the  war  would  destroy 
slavery;  while  other  warnings  from  over 
the  sea  were  to  the  effect  that  if  the 
President  should  stir  up  the  slaves  against 
their  masters,  the  sympathy  of  European 
friends  of  the  North  would  be  justly 
forfeited. 

Through  all  this  divergence  of  counsel 
Lincoln  watched,  waited,  prayed,  and  in 
cessantly  worked  toward  the  end  which  his 
own  judgment,  his  own  heart  approved. 
It  was,  as  I  have  said,  a  highly  important 
element  of  his  leadership  that  he  had  had 
the  training  of  a  lawyer,  by  a  practice  of 
many  years  and  many  kinds.  His  know 
ledge  of  men  had  thus  been  greatly  in 
creased  ;  while  his  grasp  of  legal  princi- 
[40] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

pies  was  of  vast  help  when  his  talents 
and  experience  were  called  upon  in  a 
mighty  conflict.  It  was  no  petty  con 
struction  of  legal  obligation  that  made 
him  strenuous  as  to  the  literal  fulfilment 
of  his  oath  to  execute  faithfully  the  office 
of  President,  and  preserve,  protect,  and 
defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  He  found  no  constitutional  au 
thority  to  emancipate  the  slaves  except 
as  a  military  necessity,  and  he  stedfastly 
refused  to  free  the  slaves  till  with  an 
honest  mind  he  could  declare  that  the 
necessity  had  arisen,  knowing,  then,  also, 
that  the  time  had  at  last  arrived  when 
public  opinion  would  sustain  his  action. 
In  his  famous  letter  to  Greeley,in  1 862, 
he  stated  his  position  and  explained  his 
policy  with  absolute  lucidity.  "  If  I  could 
save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave, 
I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it ;  and 
if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do 
that/'  Like  statements  were  made  to 
others  in  formal  and  informal  utterances, 
and  he  explained  to  impatient  critics  and 
counselors  that  the  condition  of  public 
opinion  would  not  justify  the  course  they 
demanded. 

But  the  deep  lesson  of  his  leadership 
lies  in  the  fact  that  while  year  after  year 
he  carefully  studied  public  opinion, — that 
supreme  element  in  all  matters  of  govern 
ment  and  all  the  affairs  of  men,  —  he 
studied  it  not  to  yield  to  it  as  his  master, 
but  in  order  so  to  act  in  respect  to  it  as 
to  accomplish  his  own  well-considered 
purpose ;  to  act  upon  it ;  to  bring  it  power 
fully  to  the  help  of  his  cherished  plans ; 
in  a  word  to  lead  it,  and  to  lead  it  right. 

What  is  true  leadership  of  the  people? 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

Is  it  to  be  carried  away  by  a  popular 
wave  ;  to  avoid  opposing  it,  not  in  order 
to  circumvent  it,  —  to  save  one's  strength 
for  its  later  direction,  —  but  solely  and 
selfishly  to  avoid  being  submerged  by  it? 
Is  it  to  change  when  it  changes,  in  order 
to  retain  place  and  the  semblance  of 
power  ?  Is  he  truly  a  leader  who  listens 
to  "  the  sacred  voice  of  the  people,"  in 
order  to  learn  which  way  to  leap  ?  Not 
thus  Lincoln.  His  was  not  the  leadership 
that,  in  order  to  be  popular,  changes  its 
mind,  but  a  leadership  that  changes  the 
minds  of  others.  He  kept  "near  the  peo 
ple," —  he  kept  his  "ear  to  the  ground," 
—  through  his  sympathy  with  human  be 
ings  and  his  interest  in  them,  in  order 
to  learn  the  moods  of  many  minds,  and 
gradually  to  lead  thought  and  action  in 
the  line  of  his  own  profound  convictions. 
Lincoln  respected  public  opinion,  —  he 
[43  ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

declared  that  "public  opinion  in  this 
country  is  everything,"  '  —  but  he  was 
not  opinion's  trembling  slave.  He  under 
stood  human  prejudices,  limitations,  the 
effects  of  heredity  and  environment ;  but 
he  '  never  considered  a  wrong  public 
opinion  final.  Not  unknown  to  mankind 
is  the  statesmanship  that  resists  public 
opinion  when  it  disapproves  of  it — resists 
till  the  waves  beat  threateningly,  and 
then  turns  with  the  tide.  This  is  the 
statesmanship  of  Pontius  Pilate  —  that 
hesitant  and  tragic  figure  who  stands  be 
fore  the  eyes  of  all  mankind,  washing 
ineffectually  his  guilty  hands,  while  he 
releases  Barabbas  and  sends  the  Christ 
to  Calvary. 

No  book  praising  Lincoln  has  lately 

been  issued  which  has  brought  to  me  a 

clearer  idea  of  his  method  with  public 

1  In  his  Columbus  speech,  September  16,  1859. 

[44] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

opinion,  as  well  as  his  wisdom  and  his 
self-sacrificing  devotion,  than  one  by  a 
man  whose  life  was  a  romance  of  devo 
tion  to  ideals,  —  a  Southern-born  aboli 
tionist,  — who  did  not  hesitate  to  dis 
praise  the  President.  He  was  opposed  to 
war,  and  held  that  "no  drop  of  blood 
would  have  been  shed  if  the  President," 
at  the  beginning,  "had  proclaimed  free 
dom  for  every  slave."  Yet  even  he  would 
have  protected  the  centers  to  which  the 
slaves  would  flee  — as  if  that  itself  would 
not  have  been  an  open  invitation  to  war! 
In  1862,  he,  the  Rev.  Moncure  D.  Con- 
way,  went  to  the  White  House  with  the 
Rev.  W.  H.  Channing,  to  urge  person 
ally  upon  the  President  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves.  Pathetic  was  the  sweet  rea 
sonableness  of  the  President  in  explain 
ing  to  these  good  and  insistent  men,  as 
he  had  so  often  done  to  men  of  like 
[45] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

scruples  and  beliefs,  not  only  his  own 
great  desire  for  emancipation,  preferably 
with  compensation,  but  the  fact  that  per 
haps  they  did  not  know  so  well  as  he  the 
temper  of  the  entire  public.  He  showed 
them  that  those  who  were  working  in 
the  antislavery  movement  would  natu 
rally  come  in  contact  with  men  of  like 
mind,  and  might  easily  overestimate  the 
number  of  those  who  held  similar  views. 
He  gave  it  as  his  observation  that  the 
great  masses  of  the  people  at  that  time 
cared  comparatively  little  about  the 
Negro.  And  at  the  end  of  the  interview 
he  said,  —  can  we  not  hear  him  say  it  ?  — 
"We  shall  need  all  the  antislavery  feel 
ing  in  the  country,  and  more;  you  can 
go  home  and  try  to  bring  the  people  to 
your  views ;  and  you  may  say  anything 
you  like  about  me,  if  that  will  help. 
Don't  spare  me." 

[46] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

"Don't  spare  me!"  In  the  pathetic 
humorousness  of  that  cry  comes  sharply 
to  mind  one  of  the  most  effective  equip 
ments  of  Lincoln  for  the  performance  of 
difficult  duties,  —  an  equipment  which 
he  shared  with  Washington,  and  which 
each  possessed  in  a  conspicuous  degree, 
— the  tremendously  powerful  quality  of 
disinterestedness.  It  was  tact,  that  is,  in 
telligence  added  to  kindliness,  which 
helped  make  Washington  a  successful 
leader;  it  was  tact  which  helped  Lincoln 
to  steer  his  Administration  between  the 
rocks  of  selfishness  and  faction  —  but 
without  purity  of  purpose,  without  abso 
lute  disinterestedness,  neither  could  have 
carried  so  well  the  part  assigned. 

Do  we  grasp  all  the  bearings  of  his 

strange  situation  ?  He  who  is  known  now 

as  the  Great  Emancipator  set  before  him 

as  the  one  indispensable  aim,  not  the  im- 

[47] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

mediate  freedom  of  the  slave,  but  the  im 
mediate  salvation  of  the  Union,  —  the 
integrity  of  the  nation,  —  though  when 
the  time  came  for  emancipation  to  assist 
Union,  how  joyfully  and  confidently  he 
seized  upon  emancipation!  With  what 
courage,  and  in  the  face  of  what  heavy 
risks  !  In  many  thoughtful  minds  the  fact 
that  Lincoln's  policy  was  the  Union  first, 
and  abolition  next,  remains  his  highest 
title  to  world-wide  fame  —  his  saving 
of  the  nation  the  gigantic  feat  that  lifts 
him  to  the  companionship  of  the  most 
momentous  characters  of  universal  his 
tory.  "This Union," says  John  Coleman 
Adams,  "  is  the  consummation  of  all  the 
struggles  of  all  men  toward  a  state  of 
universal  peace.  It  is  the  life  and  aspi 
ration  of  the  world  organized  into  a  na 
tion/'  The  threat  to  undo  the  Union  was 
a  "peril  to  mankind."  That  Lincoln  in- 

[48] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

stinctively  felt  this,  and  strained  every 
nerve  to  the  supreme  task  of  preserving 
the  nation,  and  this  with  success,  gives 
him  rank  among  the  greatest.  That  he 
did  this,  and  destroyed  slavery  also, 
proves  his  genius  and  doubly  crowns  his 
stupendous  accomplishment. 

He  did  all  this,  so  far  as  we  may  at 
tribute  to  any  single  person  the  shaping 
of  affairs  so  tremendous,  —  though  in 
this  case  the  personal  preponderance  is 
exceptionally  evident,  —  he  did  all  this, 
and  he  assumed  no  virtue  for  having  done 
it;  not  a  thought  of  vanity  or  undue 
exultation  ever  crossed  his  candid  mind. 
To  a  lesser  nature  such  temptation 
would  have  been  great  as,  at  the  last, 
success  followed  success,  remembering 
the  reproaches  he  had  so  long  silently 
borne,  and,  most  trying  of  all,  the  sus 
picion  and  spiritual  scorn  —  the  look 
[49] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

from  above  downward  —  of  those  who, 
working  for  the  same  ends,  regarded 
him  as  less  sensitive  morally  and  less 
faithful  to  that  cause  to  which  he  had 
dedicated  every  energy  of  his  soul. 

Read  again  the  thrilling  chapters  of  the 
Nicolay  and  Hay  life  which  deal  with 
emancipation.  I  say  thrilling,  because 
I  believe  that  no  intelligent  student  of 
history  —  especially  no  patriotic  Ameri 
can  of  any  party  or  locality  —  can  read 
these  pages  without  emotion.  Has  the 
mental  history  of  a  single  sublime  and 
world-approved  act  ever  before  been  so 
minutely  and  authoritatively  described  ? 
Here  no  quality  fails  of  illustration  that 
helped  to  make  Lincoln  one  of  the 
ablest  as  well  as  one  of  the  noblest 
of  men. 

It  was  the  task  of  Lincoln,  in  issuing 
his  preliminary  and  his  final  "  edicts  of 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

freedom,"  to  perform  an  executive  act 
which,  while  warranted  by  military  ne 
cessity,  should  be  based  upon  enduring 
principle,  and  so  be  effective  upon  the 
present  and  the  ultimate  public  opinion 
of  America  and  mankind.  He  must  thus 
effect  immediate  results ;  he  must  thus  do 
what  might  be  done  to  insure  in  perma 
nence  the  fruits  of  success  in  the  contro 
versy  of  arms.  Say  his  historians:  "Grand 
as  was  the  historical  act  of  signing  his  de 
cree  of  liberation,  it  was  but  an  incident 
in  the  grander  contest  he  was  commis 
sioned  and  resolved  to  maintain." 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  this  kindly, 
much-burdened,  and  harassed  ruler  had 
at  least  for  a  few  days  before  his  taking- 
off  the  satisfactions  of  full  success.  He 
who  knew  more  than  any  other  the  aw 
ful  dangers,  —  as  Godkin  said  while  Lin 
coln  still  was  living,  —  was  perhaps  the 
[5'  ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

only  man  in  the  North  who  had  "  never 
wavered,  or  doubted,  or  abated  one  jot 
of  heart  or  hope."  He  had  "  been  always 
calm,  confident,  determined ;  the  very 
type  and  embodiment  of  the  national  will, 
the  true  and  fit  representative  of  the 
people  in  its  noblest  mood  " ;  the  ideal 
"  leader  of  a  democracy."  Said  lately  one 
who  knew  him,  and  who  confesses  that 
it  has  taken  years  of  reflection  and  retro 
spective  consideration  to  become  con 
vinced  that,  in  the  matter  of  the  procla 
mation  as  a  war  measure,  Lincoln  was 
right  and  he  was  wrong :  "  Through  the 
ages  to  come,  the  history  of  the  Union 
and  freedom  under  the  Union  will  hold 
up  to  the  admiration  of  mankind,  as  the 
greatest  saving  influence  in  our  great 
est  danger,  the  character,  the  firmness, 
the  homely  sayings,  the  freedom  from 
passion,  the  singular  common -sense, 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

the  almost  divine  chanty,  of  Abraham 
Lincoln." ' 

VIII 

In  these  times  of  new  conditions,  new 
advantages,  and  new  dangers,  —  in  every 
community  of  our  country,  and  in  the 
national  field,  —  the  cry  to-day  is  for 
leaders.  Nor  are  we  without  them  :  some 
long-known  and  well-beloved;  some  just 
emerging  into  prominence,  and  being 
tried  by  the  first  tests  of  responsibility. 
Some  are  leaders  in  the  best  sense,  and 
to  some  we  may  be  inclined  to  apply 
the  name  not  of  leaders,  but  of  mislead- 
ers.  It  would  be  absurd  to  be  looking 
now  here,  now  there  for  "  another  Lin 
coln,"  for  a  reincarnation  of  that  rich 
and  most  individual  personality  —  one 
of  the  most  fascinating  the  world  has 
1  George  H.  Yeaman. 
[53] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

ever  known.  We  shall  not  see  again 
that  extraordinary  combination  of  sym 
pathetic  qualities  with  the  sterner  vir 
tues;  such  rare  gifts  and  abilities ;  that 
balance  of  ambition  with  self-effacement, 
of  confidence  with  modesty,  of  firmness 
with  tenderness,  of  decision  with  defer 
ence  ;  such  sense  of  humor ;  such  mix 
ture  of  buoyancy  of  spirit  with  moods 
of  gloom ;  such  tendency  toward  con 
templation,  and  such  power  of  action, 
all  united  in  one  character.  It  would  be 
unfortunate,  moreover,  to  judge  present- 
day  executives  and  leaders  by  comparing 
their  opinions  and  acts  in  detail  with 
those  which  were  characteristic  of  entirely 
different  men  and  conditions.  We  are 
living  in  a  very  different  world  from  that 
of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
For  one  thing,  the  relation  of  public  men 
to  the  merit  system  in  public  office  is  not 
[  54] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

that  of  the  days  of  the  Civil  War ;  and 
many  questions  are  now  pressing  which 
were  only  faintly  foreshadowed  half  a  cen 
tury  ago. 

But  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Lincoln's  leadership  are  not  outgrown. 
We  have  the  right  to  demand  in  our 
leaders  equal  sincerity,  disinterestedness, 
and  devotion.  We  have  a  right  to  point, 
as  a  perpetual  standard,  to  his  modera 
tion  ;  to  his  conscientious  consideration 
of  all  interests  and  views;  to  his  wise  and 
patient  tolerance  and  open-mindedness  ; 
to  his  freedom  from  rancor,  and  avoid 
ance  of  personal  contention;  to  his  moral 
courage ;  to  his  sense  of  justice ;  to  his 
essential  democracy.  We  may  well  ask 
of  our  leaders  that  they  should  imitate 
his  manly  attitude  toward  public  opinion ; 
that  they  should  disdain  to  injure  its 
sources  by  violent  and  unproved  asser- 
[  55  ] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

tions,  and  by  the  forced  uses  of  our  mod 
ern  enginery  of  publicity.  We  may  well 
insist  that  they  should  not  meanly  follow, 
nor  falsely  and  selfishly  mold,  the  senti 
ment  of  voters;  but  shape  aright  and  direct 
to  no  ignoble  ends  the  opinions  and  the 
suffrages  of  the  people.  We  have  a  right 
to  resent  leadership  based  either  upon  con 
scienceless  advocacy  of  supposedly  popu 
lar  programs,  or,  still  more  shameless, 
upon  the  wholesale  use  of  money.  It  is 
our  duty  to  warn  against  the  spurious 
leadership  that  deals  in  indiscriminate 
denunciation,  awakens  a  feeling  of  class 
and  of  class  hatred,  forgets  the  bonds  of 
a  common  citizenship,  spreads  distrust 
and  despisal  of  government,  and  sows  the 
very  seeds  of  anarchy  and  assassination. 
We  have  a  right  to  scout  the  demagogues 
who  take  the  name  of  Lincoln  upon  their 
lips,  yet  in  their  lives,  and  in  their  parody 
[  56] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

of  leadership,  set  at  naught  every  princi 
ple  of  his  nature.  Despicable,  too,  is  the 
leadership  quick  to  serve  moneyed  in 
terests  while  it  ignores  the  interests  and 
welfare  of  the  masses  of  the  people. 

Our  needs,  our  conditions,  are  different, 
but  the  principles  of  justice  and  of  human 
liberty  are  the  same,  now  and  forever. 
In  the  recurring  and  necessary  readjust 
ment  of  laws  and  methods  in  the  related 
realms  of  industry,  of  economics,  and  of 
government,  let  us  demand  the  respect 
for  rights,  the  acknowledgment  of  mutual 
duties,  the  striving  for  justice,  the  under 
standing  of  humanity,  and  the  love  of 
fellow  men  which  make  Lincoln's  leader 
ship,  like  the  leadership  of  Washington, 
the  standard  of  a  patriotism  broader  than 
the  confines  of  commonwealths,  and  fit 
for  emulation  and  guidance  throughout 
all  the  centuries  of  earth. 
[57] 


OFTHE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 


IX 


Let  me  close  with  the  memory  of  a 
night  of  the  spring  of  the  year  1865,  *n 
the  time  of  the  blooming  of  lilacs,  as  says 
the  wonderful  poem.  I  was  waiting  in 
Philadelphia  for  Lincoln's  funeral  train 
to  start,  as  it  was  my  duty  to  accompany 
it  to  Newark.  I  had  and  have  little  de 
sire  to  look  upon  faces  from  which  the 
light  of  life  is  departed ;  but  suddenly  it 
came  upon  me  that  I  had  never  seen  the 
great  President,  and  must  not  let  go  by 
this  last  opportunity  to  behold  at  least 
the  deserted  temple  of  a  lofty  soul.  To 
my  grief  I  found  it  was  too  late ;  the 
police  had  drawn  their  line  across  the 
path  in  front  of  Independence  Hall.  But 
my  earnest  desire  prevailed,  and  I  was 
the  last  to  pass  in  by  the  window  and 
behold,  in  a  sudden  dazzle  of  lights  and 

[58] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

flowers,  the  still  features  of  that  face  we 
all  now  know  so  well.  There  lay  the 
martyred  Lincoln,  dead  on  that  very 
spot  where,  four  years  before,  he  had  con 
secrated  himself  to  assassination,  rather 
than  that  he  should  be  unfaithful  to  the 
principles  of  liberty  which,  from  that 
sacred  chamber, — now  doubly  sacred, — 
were  given  to  the  world.  Soon  I  went 
my  way  into  the  night  and  walked  alone 
northward  to  the  distant  station,  hearing 
behind  me  the  wailing  music  of  the  funeral 
dirge.  The  procession  approached ;  the 
funeral  train  moved  out  beneath  the  stars. 
Never  shall  I  forget  the  groups  of  weep 
ing  men  and  women  at  the  little  towns 
through  which  we  slowly  passed,  and  the 
stricken  faces  of  the  thousands  who,  in  the 
cities,  stood  like  mourners  at  the  funeral 
of  a  beloved  father.  Thus,  as  came  the 
dawn  and  the  full  day,  through  grieving 
[59] 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

States  was  borne  the  body  of  the  beloved 
chieftain,  while  the  luminous  spirit  and 
example  of  Lincoln,  the  Leader  of  the 
People,  went  forth  into  all  the  earth  along 
the  pathway  of  eternal  fame. 


LINCOLN'S  GENIUS  FOR 
EXPRESSION 


The  supreme  soul  of  an  immortal  day. 


LINCOLN'S  GENIUS   FOR 
EXPRESSION 

i 

OF  style,  in^the  ordinary_usg_  of  the 
word,  Lincoln  may  be  said  to  have  been 
innocent.  He  certainly  did  not  strive  for 
an  artistic  method  of  expression  through 
such  imitation  of  the  masters,  for  in 
stance,  as  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's. 
There  was  nothing  ambitiously  elabo 
rate  or  self-consciously  simple  in  Lin 
coln's  way  of  writing.  Iie__hadjnot_^he 
scholar! s  range  of_words.  H£wasjnot  al- 
wayjs..gmuniatically;  accurate.  He  would 
doubtless  have  been  very  much  surprised 
if  any  one  had  told  him  that  he  had  a 
"style"  at  all.  And  yet,  because  he  was 
determined  to  be  understood,  because 

[63] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

he  was  honest,  because  he  had  a  warm 
and  true  heart,  because  he  had  read  good 
books  eagerly  and  not  coldly,  and  be 
cause  there  was  in  him  a  native  taste, 

r  as  well  as  a  strain  of  imagination,  and 
an  inborn  sense  of  the  beautiful  in 

n  English  prose,  —  its  proper  flow  and 
rhythm,  —  he  achieved  a  smgularly 
clear,  -and  forcible_style,  which  took 
color  from  his  own  noble  character,  and 
became  a  thing  individual  and  distin 
guished. 

He  was,  indeed,  extremely  modest 
about  his  accomplishments.  His  great 
desire  was  to  convince  those  whom  he 
addressed,  and  if  he  could  do  this, — if 
he  could  make  his  views  clear  to  them, 
still  more  if  he  could  make  them  appear 
reasonable,  —  he  was  satisfied.  In  one  of 
his  speeches  in  the  great  debate  with 
Douglas  he  said :  "  Gentlemen,  Judge 

[64] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

Douglas  informed  you  that  this  speech 
of  mine  was  probably  carefully  prepared. 
I  admit  that  it  was.  I  am  not  a  master 
of  language;  I  have  not  a  fine  educa 
tion;  I  am  not  capable  of  entering  into 
a  disquisition  upon  dialectics,  as  I  be 
lieve  you  call  it ;  but  I  do  not  believe 
the  language  I  employed  bears  any  such 
construction  as  Judge  Douglas  puts  upon 
it.  But  I  don't  care  about  a  quibble 
in  regard  to  words.  I  know  what  I 
meant,  and  I  will  not  leave  this  crowd 
in  doubt,  if  I  can  explain  it  to  them, 
what  I  really  meant  in  the  use  of  that 
paragraph." 

Who  are,  to  Americans  at  least,  the 
two  most  interesting  men  of  action  of  the 
nineteenth  century  ?  Why  not  Napoleon 
and  Lincoln?  No  two  men  could  have 
been  more  radically  different  in  many 
ways ;  but  they  were  both  great  rulers, 

[65] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

one  according  to  the  "good  old  plan" 
of  might,  the  other  by  the  good  new  plan 
of  right:  autocrat  —  democrat.  They 
were  alike  in  this  —  that  both  were  in 
tensely  interesting  personalities;  both 
were  moved  by  imagination  ;  jand_both 


One  used  this  power  to  carry  out  his  own 
sometimes  wise,  sometimes  purely  self- 
ish,  purposes  —  to  deceive  and  to  domi 
nate;  the  other  for  the  expression  of 
truth  and  the  persuasion  of  his  fellow 
men. 

Napoleon's  literary  art  was  the  mak 
ing  of  phrases  which  pierced  like  a  Cor- 
sican  knife  or  tingled  the  blood  like  the 
call  of  a  trumpet.  His  words  go  to  the 
mark  like  a  stroke  of  lightning.  When 
he  speaks,  it  is  as  if  an  earthquake  had 
passed  under  one's  feet. 

Lincoln's  style  is,  in  general,  very  dif- 
[66  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

ferent ;  heroic,  appealing,  gracious  or  hu 
morous,  it  does__not  so  much  startle  as 
melt_tl)e  heart  —  though  his  honest  in 
dignation  sometimes  gave  birth  to  a 
phrase  of  stern  and  prophetic  menace. 
These  men  were  alike  in  this — that  they 
learned  to  express  themselves  by  dint  of 
long  practice,  and  both  in  youth  wrote 
much  nonsense.  Napoleon  in  his  younj 
days  wrote  romance  and  history;  Lii 
coin  wrote  verse  and  composed  speech< 
Napoleon  failed  as  a  literary  man ;  Lin 
coln  certainly  did  not  make  any  great 
success  as  a  lyceum  lecturer;  in  fact,  his 
style  was  at  its  best  only  when  his  whole 
heart  was  enlisted. 

ii 

Lincoln's  style,  at  its  best,  is  charac 
terized  by  great  simplicity  ami  jdirect- 
ness,  which  in  themselves  are  artistic 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

qualities.  In  addition  there  is  an  agree 
able  cadence,  not  overdone  except  in  one 
curious  instance,  —  a  passage  of  the  Sec 
ond  Inaugural, — where  it  deflects  into 
poetic  measure  and  rhyme :  "  Fondly 
do  we  hope  —  fervently  do  we  pray — 
that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may 
speedily  pass  away/'  This  does  not  spoil, 
but  it  somewhat  injures,  one  of  the  most 
memorable  of  his  writings. 

Then  there  is  in  Lincoln,  at  times,  a 
quaintness,  a_homeliness  and  humor  of 
illustration,  along  with  a  most  engaging 
frankness  and  intellectual  honesty.  The 
reader  has  both  an  intellectual  and  moral 
satisfaction  in  the  clearness  and  fairness 
of  the  statement.  .All  this  affects  agree 
ably  the  literary  form,  and  helps  to  give 
Lincoln's  style  at  times  the  charm  of 
imaginative  utterance ;  for  imagination 
in  literature  is,  essentially,  the  faculty  of 
[68]  ' 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

seeing  clearly  and  the  art  of  stating  clearly 
the  actual  reality.  There  was  nothing  of 
fancy  or  invention  in  Lincoln's  imagina 
tion  ;  his  was  the  imagination  that  is 
implied  in  a  strong  realization  of  the 
truth  of  things  in  the  mind  of  the  writer 
or  speaker;  the  actual  imaged  in  the 
mind. 

When  these  letters  and  speeches  of 
Lincoln  were  appearing  in  the  papers  as 
part  of  the  news  of  the  day,  I  wonder 
how  many  of  us  who  were  then  living 
appreciated  them  from  the  literary  point 
of  view.  I  remember  that  at  a  certain 
period,  some  time  after  the  war,  I  seemed 
for  the  first  time  to  awake  fully  to  the 
attraction  of  Lincoln's  style.  Beginning 
with  the  speech  at  Gettysburg,  I  reread 
many  of  his  writings,  and  felt  every 
where  his  genius  for  expression. 

Where  and  how  did  Lincoln  gain  this 
[69]  , 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

mastery  of  expression  ?  He  said  of  him 
self:  "The  aggregate  of  all  his  schooling 
did  not  amount  to  one  year.  He  was 
never  in  a  college  or  academy  as  a  student. 
.  .  .  What  he  has  in  the  way  of  education 
he  has  picked  up.  After  he  was  twenty- 
three  and  had  separated  from  his  father, 
he  studied  English  grammar  —  imper 
fectly,  of  course,  but  so  as  to  speak  and 
write  as  well  as  he  now  does.  He  studied 
and  nearly  mastered  the  six  books  of 
Euclid  since  he  was  a  member  of  Con 
gress.  He  regrets  his  want  of  education 
and  does  what  he  can  to  supply  the 
want." 

As  a  boy  at  home  we  are  told  that  he 
would  write,  and  do  sums  in  arithmetic, 
on  the  wooden  shovel  by  the  fireside, 
shaving  off  the  used  surface  and  begin 
ning  again.  At  nineteen  it  is  recorded 
that  he  "  had  read  every  book  he  could 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

find,  and  could  spell  down  the  whole  coun 
try."  He  read  early  the  Bible,  "jEsop's 
Fables,"  "Robinson  Crusoe,"  "Pil 
grim's  Progress,"  a  history  of  the  United 
States,  Weems's"Life  of  Washington," 
Franklin's  "Autobiography";  later,  the 
life  of  Clay  and  the  works  of  Burns  and 
Shakespeare.  Not  a  bad  list  of  books, 
if  taken  seriously  and  not  mixed  with 
trash ;  for,  of  course,  culture  has  to  do 
not  so  much  with  the  extent  of  the-in 
formation  as  with  the  depth  ofjhe  im 
pression. 

The  youthful  Lincoln  pondered  also 
over  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana; 
and  "  he  would  sit  in  the  twilight  and 
read  a  dictionary  as  long  as  he  could 
see."  John  Hanks  said:  "When  Abe 
and  I  returned  to  the  house  from  work, 
he  would  go  to  the  cupboard,  snatch  a 
piece  of  corn-bread,  take  down  a  book, 
[71  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

sit  down,  cock  his  legs  up  as  high  as  his 
head,  and  read." 

At  twenty-four,  when  he  was  supposed 
to  be  keeping  a  shop,  Nicolay  and  Hay 
speak  of  the  "  grotesque  youth  habited 
in  homespun  tow,  lying  on  his  back, 
with  his  feet  on  the  trunk  of  the  tree, 
and  poring  over  his  books  by  the  hour, 
grinding  around  with  the  shade  as  it 
shifted  from  north  to  east." 

We  know  that  Lincoln  did  not  read 
Plutarch's  Lives  till  during  the  Presiden 
tial  campaign  of  1860, —  then  in  order 
to  make  true,  before  it  was  issued,  a 
statement  in  a  campaign  biography  pre 
pared  with  his  assistance.  How  early  he 
had  read  anything  of  Emerson's  we  may 
infer  from  the  fact  that  when  the  two 
greatest  Americans  of  iheir  time  met  in 
Washington,  during  the  war,  Lincoln 
*  quoted  to  Emerson  a  remark  about  Ken- 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

tuckians  which  occurred  in  a  lecture  of 
Emerson's  given  in  New  York  in  the  year 
1843,  and  reported  in  the  "Weekly 
Tribune." 

The  youth  not  only  read  and  thought, 
but  wrote,  among  other  things,  nonsensi-? 
cal  or  sentimental  verses ;  and  he  com 
posed  speeches.  He  went  early  into  poli 
tics,  and  soon  became  a  thoughtful  and 
effective  speaker  and  debater.  Of  the 
language  that  Lincoln  heard  and  used 
in  boyhood,  says  Nicolay,  in  an  essay 
on  "  Lincoln's  Literary  Experiments," 
printed  since  the  "  Life "  was  issued, 
"  though  the  vocabulary  was  scanty,  the 
words  were  short  and  forcible."  He 
learned  among  men  and  women  poor 
and  inured  to  hardship  how  the  plain 
people  think  and  feel,  and  he  addressed 
himself  to  their  understanding. 

In  his  young  manhood  at  Springfield 
[  73  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

he  measured  wits  with  other  bright  young 
lawyers,  in  plain  and  direct  language  be 
fore  plain  and  simple-minded  auditors, 
either  in  political  discussion  or  in  the 
court-room ;  either  in  the  capital  or  in 
the  country  towns  of  Illinois.  His  mathe 
matical  and  legal  studies  were  an  aid  to 
precise  statement,  and  his  native  honesty 
made  him  frank  and  convincing  in  argu 
ment. 

Lincoln  feltvhimself  to  be  a  poor  de 
fender  of  a  guilty  client,  and  sometimes 
avoided  the  job.  If  for  a  brief  period  in 
his  youth  he  indulged  in  anything  re 
sembling  the  spread-eagle  style  of  oratory, 
he  was  quick,  as  Nicolay  declares,  to 
realize  the  danger  and  overcome  the 
temptation. 


[74] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

in 

By  practice  in  extemporary  speaking 
Lincoln  learned  to  do  a  most  difficult 
thing — namely,  to  produce  literature  on 
his  legs.  It  is  difficult  thus  to  produce 
literature,  because  the  words  must  flow 
with  immediate  precision.  It  is  unusual 
for  a  politician  to  go  through  life  always 
addressing  audiences,  and  yet  always 
avoiding  the  orator's  temptation  to  please 
and  captivate  by  extravagant  and  false 
sentiment  and  statement.  The  writer  — 
and  particularly  the  political  writer  —  is 
tempted  to  this  sort  of  immorality,  but 
still  more  the  speaker,  for  with  the  latter 
the  reward  of  applause  is  prompt  and 
seductive.  It  is  amazing  to  look  over 
Lincoln's  record  and  find  how  seldom 
he  went  beyond  bounds,  how  fair  and 
just  he  was,  how  responsible  and  con- 
[75] 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

scientious  his  utterances  long  before  these 
utterances  became  of  national  importance. 
Yet  it  was  largely  because  of  this  very 
quality  that  they  assumed  national  im 
portance.  And,  then,  both  his  imagina 
tion  and  his  sympathy  helped  him  here, 
for  while  he  keenly  saw  and  felt  his  own 
side  of  the  argument,  he  could  see  as 
clearly,  and  he  could  sympathetically 
understand,  the  side  of  his  opponent. 

Lincoln  was  barely  twenty-three  when, 
as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  he  is 
sued  a  formal  address  to  the  people  of 
Sangamon  County.  It  is  the  first  paper 
preserved  by  Nicolay  and  Hay  in  their 
collection  of  his  addresses  and  letters. 
Nicolay  well  says  that  "  as  a  literary  pro 
duction  no  ordinary  college  graduate 
would  need  to  be  ashamed  of  it." 

In  this  address  we  already  find  that 
honest  purpose,  that  "  sweet  reasonable- 

[76] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

ness "  and  persuasiveness  of  speech, 
which  is  characteristic  of  his  later  and 
more  celebrated  utterances.  In  his  gath 
ered  writings  and  addresses  we  find,  in 
deed,  touches  of  the  true  Lincoln  genius 
here  and  there  from  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  on.  In  the  literary  record  of  about 
his  thirty-third  year  occur  some  of  the 
most  surprising  proofs  of  the  delicacy  of 
his  nature  —  of  that  culture  of  the  soul 
which  had  taken  place  in  him  in  the 
midst  of  such  harsh  and  unpromising 
environment.  I  refer  to  the  letters  writ 
ten  to  his  young  friend  Joshua  F.  Speed, 
a  member  of  the  Kentucky  family  asso 
ciated  by  marriage  with  the  family  of  the 
poet  Keats. 

In  Lincoln's   early  serious  verse  the 
feeling  is  right,  though  the  art  is  lack 
ing  ;  but  the  verses  are  interesting  in  that 
they  show  a  good  ear.  Note  has  been 
[77] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

made  of  a  pleasing  cadence  in  Lincoln's 
prose;  and  it  is  not  strange  that  he 
should  show  a  rhythmical  sense  in  his 
verse.  We  learn  from  those  who  knew 
him  best  in  later  life  that  he  was  an  ar 
dent  lover  and  frequent  reader  of  poetry 
— especially  of  Shakespeare.  In  the  home 
circle  he  would  recite  favorite  poems,  like 
those  of  Hood. 

IV 

By  the  time  he  was  thirty-nine  years 
of  age  Lincoln  was  an  accomplished  ora 
tor.  His  speech  in  Congress  on  the  28th 
of  January,  1848,  on  the  Mexican  War, 
strikes  the  note  of  solej£n_venty  and  of 
noble  indignation  which  a  little  later  rang 
through  the  country,  and,  with  other 
voices,  aroused  it  to  a  sense  of  impending 
danger. 

It  was  in  1851  that  he  wrote  some 
[  78  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

family  letters  that  not  only  show  him  in 
a  charming  light  as  the  true  and  wise 
friend  of  his  shiftless  step-brother,  but  as 
the  affectionate  guardian  of  his  step 
mother,  who  had  been  such  a  good 
mother  to  him.  There  is  something 
Greek  in  the  clear  phrase  and  pure  rea 
son  of  these  epistles  :  — 

"  DEAR  BROTHER  :  — When  I  came 
into  Charleston  day  before  yesterday,  I 
learned  that  you  are  anxious  to  sell  the 
land  where  you  live  and  move  to  Mis 
souri.  I  have  been  thinking  of  this  ever 
since,  and  cannot  but  think  such  a  notion 
is  utterly  foolish.  What  can  you  do  in 
Missouri  better  than  here?  Is  the  land 
any  richer?  Can  you  there,  any  more 
than  here,  raise  corn  and  wheat  and  oats 
without  work  ?  Will  anybody  there,  any 
more  than  here,  do  your  work  for  you  ? 
[  79] 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

If  you  intend  to  go  to  work,  there  is  no 
better  place  than  right  where  you  are; 
if  you  do  not  intend  to  go  to  work,  you 
cannot  get  along  anywhere.  Squirming 
and  crawling  about  from  place  to  place 
can  do  no  good.  You  have  raised  no 
crop  this  year;  and  what  you  really  want 
is  to  sell  the  land,  get  the  money,  and 
spend  it.  Part  with  the  land  you  have, 
and,  my  life  upon  it,  you  will  never  after 
own  a  spot  big  enough  to  bury  you  in." 

We  find  in  his  Peoria  speech  of  1854 
a  statement  of  his  long  contention  against 
the  extension  of  slavery,  and  a  proof  of 
his  ability  to  cope  intellectually  with  the 
ablest  debaters  of  the  West.  His  Peoria 
speech  was  in  answer  to  Judge  Douglas, 
with  whom  four  years  afterward  he  held 
the  far-resounding  debate.  Lincoln  was 
now  forty-five  years  old,  and  his  oratory 
[  80  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

contains  that  moral  impetus  which  was 
to  give  it  greater  and  greater  power. 

In  1856  occurred  the  Fremont  and 
Dayton  campaign,  which  came  not  very 
far  from  being  the  Fremont  and  Lincoln 
campaign.  In  a  speech  in  this  campaign 
he  used  a  memorable  phrase :  "  All  this 
talk  about  the  dissolution  of  the  Union 
is  humbug,  nothing  but  folly.  We  do 
not  want  to  dissolve  the  Union  ;  you  shall 
not."  In  the  speech  delivered  at  Spring 
field,  Illinois,  at  the  close  of  the  Repub 
lican  State  Convention  of  1858,  —  in 
which  he  had  been  named  as  candidate 
for  United  States  Senator,  —  the  skilful 
and  serious  orator  rises  not  merely  to  the 
broad  level  of  nationality,  but  to  the 
high  plane  of  universal  humanity.  As 
events  thicken  and  threaten,  his  style  be 
comes  more  solemn.  So  telling  at  last  his 
power  of  phrase,  that  it  would  hardly 
[8,  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

seem  to  be  an  exaggeration  to  declare 
that  the  war  itself  was  partly  induced  by 
the  fact  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  able 
to  express  his  pregnant  thoughts  with  the 
art  of  a  master.  How  familiar  now  these 
words  of  prophecy:  — 

"c  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand/  I  believe  this  government  can 
not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and 
half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to 
be  dissolved  —  I  do  not  expect  the  house 
to  fall  —  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to 
be  divided." 


The  cadence  of  Lincoln's  prose  with 
its  burden  of  high  hope,  touched  with 
that  heroism  which  is  so  near  to  pathos, 
reminds  one  of  the  Leitmotif ,  the  "  lead 
ing  motive,"  in  symphony  and  music- 
drama  of  which  musicians  make  use,  and 
[82] 


GENIUS   FOR   EXPRESSION 

which  is  especially  characteristic  of  the 
manner  of  Wagner.  Listen  :  — 

"  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans  of 
the  nation  mustered  over  thirteen  hun 
dred  thousand  strong.  We  did  this 
under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance 
to  a  common  danger,  with  every  external 
circumstance  against  us.  Of  strange,  dis 
cordant,  and  even  hostile  elements,  we 
gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and  formed 
and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the 
constant  hot  fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud, 
and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all 
then  to  falter  now  —  now,  when  that  same 
enemy  is  wavering,  dissevered,  and  bel 
ligerent?  The  result  is  not  doubtful. 
We  shall  not  fail —  if  we  stand  firm,  we 
shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  acceler 
ate  or  mistakes  delay  it,  but,  sooner  or 
later,  the  victory  is  sure  to  come" 

We  have  arrived  now  at  the  period  of 
[83  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

the  joint  debate  between  Lincoln  and 
Douglas.  In  Lincoln  we  have  the  able 
and  practiced  attorney,  with  one  side  of 
his  nature  open  to  the  eternal ;  in  Doug 
las  the  skilful  lawyer,  adroit  and  ambi 
tious,  not  so  easily  moved  by  the  moral 
appeals  which  quickly  took  hold  upon 
Lincoln,  but  a  man  capable  of  right  and 
patriotic  action  when  the  depths  of  his 
nature  were  stirred. 

Among  the  most  characteristic  quali 
ties  of  Lincoln's  expression  are  its  mo 
rality,  its  insight,  and  its  prophecy ;  and 
in  the  now  famous  debate  he  reached 
well-nigh  the  fullness  of  his  power  to  put 
great  thoughts  into  fitting  language. 
His  words  went  straight  into  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  eagerly  listening  crowds. 
The  question,  he  contended,  was  as  to 
the  right  or  the  wrong  of  slavery  :  — 

"  That   [he    said]  is    the  real  issue. 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

That  is  the  issue  that  will  continue  in 
this  country  when  these  poor  tongues 
of  Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be 
silent.  It  is  the  eternal  struggle  between 
these  two  principles  —  right  and  wrong 
—  throughout  the  world.  They  are  the 
two  principles  that  have  stood  face  to 
face  from  the  beginning  of  time,  and  will 
ever  continue  to  struggle.  The  one  is 
the  common  right  of  humanity,  and  the 
other  the  divine  right  of  kings." 

VI 

It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that, 
in  the  pause  of  his  affairs  after  the  debate 
with  Douglas,  Lincoln  took  up  the  then 
popular  custom  of  lyceum-lecturing.  In 
the  very  year  before  his  election  to  the 
presidency  the  great  orator  and  statesman 
was  engaged  in  delivering  a  totally  un 
inspired  lecture  on  "  Discoveries,  Inven- 

[85] 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

dons,  and  Improvements/*  in  towns 
near  Springfield,  and  in  Springfield  it 
self  on  Washington's  Birthday  in  the 
fateful  year  of  1860.  There  was  little  in 
this  lecture  to  attract  the  slightest  atten 
tion  ;  and  while  it  may  have  given  satis 
faction  among  neighbors,  it  could  never 
have  added  to  his  fame.  Yet,  when  he 
had  the  opportunity  of  an  engagement 
to  lecture  on  political  subjects  in  this 
same  month  of  February,  he  made  what 
is  now  known  as  the  "great  address  "  at 
Cooper  Union. 

In  opening  his  remarks  Lincoln  spoke 
modestly  of  what  he  proposed  to  do  in 
this  address.  But  his  argument  was, 
really,  not  only  new  but  remarkable.  It 
concerned  the  attitude  of  the  fathers  as 
to  the  control  of  slavery  in  the  Territo 
ries,  and  took  the  ground  that  the  federal 
government  was  not  forbidden  there  to 
[  86  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

control  the"  institution."  Senator  Doug 
las  had  brought  the  matter  up  in  a  speech 
in  the  preceding  autumn,  but,  while  tak 
ing  the  opposite  ground,  he  had  presented 
no  array  of  facts  in  support  of  his  con 
tention. 

It  is  told  in  New  York,  now  nearly 
half  a  century  after  the  event,  by  those 
who  heard  Lincoln  on  that  memorable 
night,  that  this  was  a  performance  very 
different  from  what  many  in  the  audience 
anticipated  —  more  sober  and  weighty 
than  might  have  been  expected  from  the 
Western  lawyer  and  successful  political 
debater,  who  yet  was  a  graduate  of  no 
school.  The  not  too  well-fitting  clothes 
and  the  long  and  lank  appearance  of  the 
orator  were  not  a  surprise,  nor  were  some 
of  his  quaint  and  unconventional  ges 
tures  ;  but  the  intellectual  quality  of  the 
discourse  tallied  only  with  the  thoughts 
[  87] 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

and  hopes  of  the  little  group  of  men  who 
had  heard  of  his  accomplishments  in 
Illinois  and  had  invited  him  to  a  metro 
politan  platform. 

There  is  a  story  that  Abram  Hewitt 
— than  whom  no  keener-witted  man  then 
went  his  ways  in  New  York — was  in  the 
building  that  night  on  business  for  his 
father-in-law,  Peter  Cooper.  It  is  said 
that  he  paused  at  a  doorway  leading  into 
the  hall,  and  catching  a  sentence  remark 
able  for  its  clarity  and  force,  remained 
till  the  last  word  was  uttered,  and,  like 
Bryant,  became  from  that  occasion  a 
firm  admirer,  at  first  hand,  of  the  rising 
statesman.  It  is  known  that,  whatever 
the  circumstances  that  brought  young 
Hewitt  to  the  hall,  he  did  hear  the  ad 
dress,  and  from  that  hour  cherished  no 
doubt  as  to  the  character  and  abilities 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

[88] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

Forty  years  after  the  event,  so  distin 
guished  an  expert  as  Ambassador  Choate 
told,  in  an  address  in  Edinburgh,  the 
effect  of  Lincoln's  argument  upon  him 
self  and  upon  the  entire  audience  in 
Cooper  Union,  which  included  "  all 
the  learned  and  cultured  of  his  party  in 
New  York."  As  he  talked  to  young 
Choate  before  the  meeting  he  seemed  ill 
at  ease  and  in  dread  of  strange  and  critical 
hearers.  But,  says  the  later  orator  :  "  He  \ 
was  equal  to  the  occasion."  For  an  hour 
and  a  half  he  held  his  audience  in  the 
hollow  of  his  hand.  The  "  Tribune  " 
said  the  next  morning :  "  No  man  ever 
before  made  such  an  impression  on  his 
first  appeal  to  a  New  York  audience." 

Nearly  fifty  years  after  this   address, 

Mr.  George  Haven  Putnam,  whose  father 

was  on  the  list  of  inviters,  has  told  of  his 

youthful  impressions.  He  does  not  claim 

[89] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

that  he  had  any  adequate  appreciation  of 
the  speaker's  reasoning;  but  he  remem 
bers  that  he  was  at  once  impressed  with 
the  feeling  that  here  was  a  political 
leader  whose  methods  differed  from  those 
of  any  politician  to  whom  he  had  hitherto 
listened.  He  adds  that  if  it  had  not  been 
for  "the  impression  made  upon  New 
York  by  Lincoln's  speech  and  by  the 
man  himself/'  the  vote  of  New  York 
could  not  have  been  secured,  in  the  com 
ing  May,  for  his  nomination. 

Two  members  of"  The  Young  Men's 
Republican  Union,"  Mr.  Charles  C. 
Nott  and  Mr.  Cephas  Brainerd,  —  who 
have  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Lin 
coln's  centennial  fitly  celebrated, — -as 
sumed  the  task  of  annotating  the  address 
for  pamphlet  reproduction.  It  took  them 
months  to  collect  the  material  for  their 
illustrative  citations,  for  they  had  to  do 
[90] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

the  work  without  assistance  from  the 
orator  himself,  who,  in  those  days  of  few 
libraries,  few  indices,  and  few  tables  of 
contents,  was  unable  to  refer  them  spe 
cifically  to  his  authorities. 

It  has  taken  some  persons  of  supposed 
perception  many  years  to  arrive  at  con 
clusions  concerning  Lincoln's  genius  for 
expression  which  these  young  editors 
had  the  opportunity  of  reaching,  through 
these  interesting  labors  in  the  year  before 
the  war.  In  a  prophetic  preface  to  the 
pamphlet  edition  of  the  address  they 
said :  — 

From  the  first  line  to  the  last  —  from  his 
premises  to  his  conclusion,  he  travels  with  a 
swift,  unerring  directness  which  no  logician 
ever  excelled  —  an  argument  complete  and 
full,  without  the  affectation  of  learning,  and 
without  the  stiffness  which  usually  accompa 
nies  dates  and  details.  A  single,  easy,  simple 
[9'  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

sentence  of  plain  Anglo-Saxon  words  contains 
a  chapter  of  history,  that,  in  some  instances, 
has  taken  days  of  labor  to  verify,  and  which 
must  have  cost  the  author  months  of  in 
vestigation  to  acquire.  And,  though  the  public 
should  justly  estimate  the  labor  bestowed  on 
the  facts  which  are  stated,  they  cannot  estimate 
the  greater  labor  involved  on  those  which  are 
omitted  —  how  many  pages  have  been  read  — 
how  many  works  examined  —  what  numer 
ous  statutes,  resolutions,  speeches,  letters,  and 
biographies  have  been  looked  through.  Com 
mencing  with  this  address  as  a  political  pam 
phlet,  the  reader  will  leave  it  as  an  historical 
work  —  brief,  complete,  profound,  impartial, 
truthful  —  which  will  survive  the  time  and 
the  occasion  that  called  it  forth,  and  be  es 
teemed  hereafter,  no  less  for  its  intrinsic  worth 
than  its  unpretending  modesty. 

The  address  closed  with  one  of  Lin 
coln's  most  famous  and  characteristic  say 
ings  :  "  Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes 
[  9*  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

might,  and  in  that  faith,  let  us,  to  the 
end,  dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  under 
stand  it." 

This  address  of  Lincoln,  and  the  other 
addresses  which  he  made  during  his  east 
ern  visit,  proved  momentous.  He  him 
self,  at  the  time,  had  not  the  slightest 
idea  of  the  importance  of  the  tour.  In 
fact  he  intended  no  tour;  he  simply 
expected  to  fulfill  his  engagement  at 
Cooper  Union,  and  then  to  visit  his  old 
est  son,  who  was  at  school  at  Exeter, 
New  Hampshire.  The  other  invitations 
to  make  addresses  were  unexpected. 
They  were  eleven  in  number,  confined 
to  Rhode  Island,  New  Hampshire  (in 
the  company  of  his  son),  and  Connecti 
cut.  From  Exeter  on  March  4,  1860, 
he  wrote  as  follows  to  Mrs.  Lincoln  :  — 

"  I  have  been  unable  to  escape  this 

toil.  If  I  had  foreseen  it,  I  think  I  would 

[93  ] 


GENIUS  FOR   EXPRESSION 

not  have  come  East  at  all.  The  speech  at 
New  York,  being  within  my  calculation 
before  I  started,  went  off  passably  well 
and  gave  me  no  trouble  whatever.  The 
difficulty  was  to  make  nine  others  [two 
were  added  subsequently  to  the  list],  be 
fore  reading  audiences  who  have  already 
seen  all  my  ideas  in  print." l 

Already  he  was  the  West's  man.  He 
had  now,  without  knowing  it,  captured 
the  East.  In  a  little  more  than  two 
months  he  was  nominated,  in  Novem 
ber  he  was  elected,  and  on  the  very  an 
niversary  of  the  date  of  his  letter  to 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  he  was  inaugurated  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

With  this  Eastern  tour,  and  with  his 
election  to  the  Presidency,  he  may  be 
said  to  have  resumed  his  true  literary 

1  From  unpublished  manuscript  by  courtesy  of  the 
Hon.  Robert  T.  Lincoln. 

[94] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

career,  for  (as  I  have  said)  his  style  was  at 
its  best  only  when  he  was  dealing  with 
a  cause  which  enlisted  his  whole  heart. 

VII 

By  way  of  contrast  to  what  has  passed 
and  is  to  come,  let  us  cull  some  of  the 
passages  in  which  shone  Lincoln's  wit 
and  humor.  How  pleasing  it  is  to  know 
that  his  melancholy  nature,  his  burdened 
spirit,  were  refreshed  with  glimpses  — 
often  storms  — of  mirth  ! 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  the  nature 
of  certain  of  the  stories  attributed  to 
Lincoln  detract  from  his  greatness  —  at 
tributed,.  I  say,  for  we  all  know  how,  so 
soon  as  a  man  is  given  a  name  for  wit, 
an  apocrypha  at  once  begins.  Now  it 
must  be  understood  that  Lincoln  had  a 
mind  of  such  breadth  as  to  suggest  a 
quality  Shakesperean.  He  was  interested 
[  95  ] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

in  human  phenomena  of  every  kind.  The 
human  animal  interested  and  amused 
him.  So,  in  private  conversation,  he  often 
drew  his  illustrations  from  the  rough 
jokes  characteristic  of  frontier  life  —  told 
by  him  with  a  boyish  sense  of  humor. 
Some  men  tell  stories  that  make  the 
hearers  loathe  the  teller ;  but  we  have 
it  on  the  authority  of  living  witnesses 
who  knew  him  well  that  no  such  stories 
issued  from  Lincoln's  lips. 

His  forensic  wit  came  out  sharply  in 
one  ofTiis  ^well-known  congressional 
speeches,  in  which  he  referred  with  grim 
sarcasm  to  General  Cass's  military  record 
as  used  for  political  ammunition.  Here 
are  some  later  touches  of  his  wit :  "  The 
plainest  print  cannot  be  read  through  a 
gold  eagle."  "  If  you  think  you  can 
slander  a  woman  into  loving  you,  or  a 
man  into  voting  for  you,  try  it  till  you 
[96] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

are  satisfied."  "Has  Douglas  the  exclu 
sive  right  in  this  country  to  be  on  all 
sides  of  all  questions  ?"  Again:  "  In  his 
numerous  speeches  now  being  made  in 
Illinois,  Senator  Douglas  regularly  argues 
against  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of 
men ;  and  while  he  does  not  draw  the 
conclusion  that  the  superiors  ought  to 
enslave  the  inferiors,  he  evidently  wishes 
his  hearers  to  draw  that  conclusion.  He 
shirks  the  responsibility  of  pulling  the 
house  down,  but  he  digs  under  it  that 
it  may  fall  of  its  own  weight." 

cc  The  enemy  would  fight,"  said  the 
President  in  a  letter  to  General  Hooker, 
"  in  intrenchments,  and  have  you  at  a 
disadvantage,  and  so,  man  for  man,  worst 
you  at  that  point,  while  his  main  force 
would  in  some  way  be  getting  an  advan 
tage  of  you  northward.  In  one  word,  I 
would  not  take  any  risk  of  being  en- 
[97] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

tangled  upon  the  river  like  an  ox  jumped 
half  over  a  fence  and  liable  to  be  torn  by 
dogs  front  and  rear  without  a  fair  chance 
to  gore  one  way  and  kick  the  other."  It 
was  also  to  Hooker  that  he  wrote: 
"  Only  those  generals  who  gain  successes 
can  set  up  dictators.  What  I  now  ask  of 
you  is  military  success,  and  I  will  risk 
the  dictatorship." 

In  a  letter  written  in  1859  to  a  Boston 
committee  he  said,  in  describing  a  change 
in  party  standards  :  "  I  remember  being 
once  much  amused  at  seeing  two  partially 
intoxicated  men  engaged  in  a  fight  with 
their  greatcoats  on,  which  fight,  after  a 
long  and  rather  harmless  contest,  ended 
in  each  having  fought  himself  out  of  his 
own  coat  and  into  that  of  the  other.  If 
the  two  leading  parties  of  this  day  are 
really  identical  with  the  two  in  the  days 
of  Jefferson  and  Adams,  they  have  per- 
[98] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

formed  the  same  feat  as  the  two  drunken 
men."  And  this  is  from  his  very  last 
public  address :  "  Concede  that  the  new 
government  of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what 
it  should  be  as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we 
shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching 
the  egg  than  by  smashing  it." 

A  specimen  of  his  spoken  wit  is  the 
story  told  of  his  reply  to  the  country 
man  who  at  a  reception  said,  —  in  the 
prepared  speech  that  patriots  so  often 
shoot  at  the  President  as  they  plunge 
past  him  in  the  processions  through  the 
White  House, —  "I  believe  in  God 
Almighty  and  Abraham  Lincoln."  — 
"You're  more  than  half  right,"  quickly 
answered  the  President.  When,  at  a  con 
ference  with  Confederate  leaders,  he  was 
reminded  by  the  Southern  commissioner, 
Mr.  Hunter,  that  Charles  I  entered  into 
an  agreement  with  "parties  in  arms 
[99] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

against  the  government,"  Lincoln  said : 
"  I  do  not  profess  to  be  posted  in  his 
tory.  In  all  such  matters  I  will  turn  you 
over  to  Seward.  All  I  distinctly  recollect 
about  the  case  of  Charles  I  is  that  he 
lost  his  head." 

VIII 

Lincoln  was  elected  to  the  Presidency 
of  a  country  on  the  verge  of  civil  war. 
In  his  farewell  to  his  fellow  townsmen 
sounds  again  that  musical  "motive"  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  recurring  like  the 
refrain  of  a  sad,  heroic  poem.  Re 
member  the  passage  quoted  before.  It 
occurred  in  his  speech  of  1858:  "The 
result  is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail 
—  if  we  stand  firm,  we  shall  not  fail. 
Wise  counsels  may  accelerate  or  mis 
takes  delay  it,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the 
victory  is  sure  to  come." 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

In  parting  from  his  old  neighbors  he 
said :  — 

"  Here  my  children  have  been  born, 
and  one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not 
knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may  re 
turn,  with  a  task  before  me  greater  than 
that  which  rested  upon  Washington. 
Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine 
Being  who  ever  attended  him  I  cannot 
succeed.  With  that  assistance  I  cannot 
fail.  Trusting  in  Him  who  can  go  with 
me  and  remain  with  you,  and  be  every 
where  for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope 
that  all  will  yet  be  well." 

The  First  Inaugural  concluded  with 
a  passage  of  great  tenderness.  We  learn 
from  Nicolay  and  Hay  that  the  fortu 
nate  suggestion  of  that  passage,  its  first 
draft  indeed,  came  from  Seward.  But 
compare  this  first  draft  with  the  passage 
as  amended  and  adopted  by  Lincoln  ! 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

This  is  Seward's :  — 

"  I  close.  We  are  not,  we  must  not  be, 
aliens  or  enemies,  but  fellow-country 
men  and  brethren.  Although  passion 
has  strained  our  bonds  of  affection  too 
hardly,  they  must  not,  I  am  sure  they 
will  not,  be  broken.  The  mystic  chords 
which,  proceeding  from  so  many  battle 
fields  and  so  many  patriot  graves,  pass 
through  all  the  hearts  and  all  hearths  in 
this  broad  continent  of  ours,  will  yet 
again  harmonize  in  their  ancient  music 
when  breathed  upon  by  the  guardian 
angel  of  the  nation." 

And  this  is  Lincoln's:  — 

"  I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  ene 
mies,  but  friends.  We  must  not  be  ene 
mies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained, 
it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 
The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretch 
ing  from  every  battlefield  and  patriot 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth 
stone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet 
swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union  when 
again  touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by 
the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

There  is  in  this  last  something  that 
suggests  music  ;  again  we  hear  the  strain 
of  the  Leitmotif.  Strangely  enough,  in 
i  £58  Lincoln  himself  had  used  a  figure 
not  the  same  as,  but  suggestive  of,  this 
very  one  now  given  by  Seward.  He  was 
speaking  of  the  moral  sentiment,  the  sen 
timent  of  equality,  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  "That"  he  said,  "  is  the 
electric  chord  in  that  Declaration,  that 
links  the  hearts  of  patriotic  and  liberty- 
loving  men  together,  that  will  link  those 
patriotic  hearts  as  long  as  the  love  of 
freedom  exists  in  the  minds  of  men 
throughout  the  world." 

In  the  final  paragraph  of  the  Second 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

Inaugural  we  find  again  the  haunting 
music  with  which  the  First  Inaugural 
closed.  On  the  heart  of  what  American, 
— North  or  South,  —  are  not  the  words 
imprinted? 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  char 
ity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us 
strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in; 
to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care 
for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle, 
and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan  —  to 
do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a 
just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves, 
and  with  all  nations." 

As  the  great  musician  brings  some 
where  to  its  highest  expression  the  mo 
tive  which  has  been  entwined  from  first 
to  last  in  his  music-drama,  so  did  the 
expression  of  Lincoln's  passion  for  his 
country  reach  its  culmination  in  the  ten- 
[  104] 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

der  and  majestic  phrases  of  the  Gettys 
burg  Address :  — 

"In  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedi 
cate —  we  cannot  consecrate  —  we  can 
not  hallow  —  this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here, 
have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor 
power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will 
little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we 
say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what 
they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living, 
rather,  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfin 
ished  work  which  they  who  fought  here 
have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is 
rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the 
great  task  remaining  before  us  —  that 
from  these  honored  dead  we  take  in 
creased  devotion  to  the  cause  for  which 
they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devo 
tion  ;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that 
these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ; 
[  105  ] 


GENIUS   FOR  EXPRESSION 

that  this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have 
a  new  birth  of  freedom ;  and  that  gov 
ernment  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the 
earth." 

But  there  is  a  letter  of  Lincoln's  which 
may  well  be  associated  with  the  Gettys 
burg  Address.  It  was  written,  just  one 
year  after  the  delivery  of  the  Address, 
to  a  mother  who,  the  President  had  been 
told,  had  lost  five  sons  in  the  army.  I 
believe  the  number  was  not  so  large, 
though  that  does  not  matter :  — 

"  EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
"WASHINGTON,  November  21,  1864. 

"MRS.  BIXBY, 

"  Boston,  Massachusetts. 

"  DEAR  MADAM  :  I  have  been  shown 

in  the  files  of  the  War  Department  a 

statement  of  the  Adjutant-General    of 

Massachusetts  that  you  are  the  mother 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously  on 
the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and 
fruitless  must  be  any  words  of  mine 
which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you 
from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  overwhelming. 
But  I  cannot  refrain  from  tendering  to 
you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found 
in  the  thanks  of  the  Republic  they  died 
to  save.  I  pray  that  our  heavenly  Father 
may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your  be 
reavement,  and  leave  you  only  the  cher 
ished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost,  and 
the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to 
have  laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the 
altar  of  freedom.  Yours  very  sincerely 
and  respectfully, 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

This  letter  of  consolation  in  its  sim 
plicity  and  fitness  again  recalls  the  Greek 
spirit.    The  letter,  and  the  Gettysburg 
[  107] 


GENIUS  FOR  EXPRESSION 

address,  are  like  those  calm  and  well- 
wrought  monuments  of  grief  which  the 
traveler  may  still  behold  in  that  small 
cemetery,  under  the  deep  Athenian  sky, 
where  those  who  have  been  for  ages  dead 
are  kept  alive  in  the  memories  of  men 
by  an  immortal  art. 


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